MiaCucina — Restaurant in Neihu District

I always like the food but I always have a so so experience. The servers are not rude per say but they are not very warm and welcoming. They have arbitrary rules that are sometimes enforced (wear mask at the table while waiting for food, don't eat at the second floor, pour yourself water into these tiny cups and keep getting up to pour yourself from the pitcher or just get a collection of cups, but you are not allowed to have the pitcher at the table, etc)

The food items on the menu are usually not available. The order menu is always in Chinese which is fine for me, but even then I see locals looking for food from the menu book to the order menu as if it were a "where's Waldo" book. And sometimes it takes a long while before you get your food.

I'm hoping the overall restaurant can improve and when it does I'd be happy to change my review score. I'm sticking to two stars for now but I still plan on eating there...

I have to say that I was quite disappointed with this restaurant. The idea is great of the vegetarian concept. However, the manu was uninspiring with most food that you can food yourself. The ingredients they used were not good quality, specially cheese. The vegetable they use were cheap, mostly lettuce. Even the portions were big, but the food tasted just about edible with ready made sauce. The service was also bad and slow. It is also self service that you have to tidy up yourself. It is a bit of joke that you have to do self service with the price you paid and for the cheaply made food you got. It took them one hour to make a sale with mostly lettuce. I do not really get why it is popular. Maybe people think that is what healthy food should taste like?

In addition, there is also couple sale that you can order if you are gluten free as they have wheat...

The other one I went to (Tiammu) seemed a lot better in terms of freshness, portion size and value. We tried: the jalapeno pizza -- lukewarm and floppy;

Green bean potato pesto spaghetti -- overly oily and lacking flavor;

Roasted vegetable salad -- large but overly heavy on mushrooms;

And one tried the soup of the day, which was cream of mushroom -- decent but mispaired with a piece of cranberry toast.

Total came out to 460 per person without any drinks. Seemed expensive for what we got. The best thing tried at the Tianmu location was the burger, which was absent from the menu.

Nice atmosphere overall. We were on the second level, and there was a continuous vibration in the floor, as if we were above a large mechanical object. We either got used to it or it went away after a bit, but it was rather...